Killjoys: S03E09 “Reckoning Ball”

Killjoys has always been a savvy show. Hell, the very first scene of the very first episode was about using genre tropes to play with the audience’s expectations. Michelle Lovretta and the writers know that you know that this is the table-setting episode for the season finale, and in true Killjoys style, decided that the only way out was through. Hence, as Alvis announces, it’s Reckoning Night.

Sprinkled throughout the episode are the fun character moments Killjoys excels at. Pree’s boytoy’s mom is introduced and, in a warped way, is the best in-law Pree could have hoped for. Alvis makes up with Fancy, who pays it forward to Turin. Space redditor Pippin returns to make his Hullen-memory directorial debut. (I feel for D’avin in that scene. I don’t even know what to do with my hands during normal conversation.) Even Zeph and Johnny manage to work together without too much friction.

Unfortunately, this savviness backfires in the A-plot. The writers clearly knew that going ahead with Dutch’s kill/suicide plan might seem dumb, and wanted to drive home that Dutch had no other options. But what they actually showed was that, without Johnny and/or Zeph, Dutch and D’avin just aren’t competent enough to pull off the other options. Now, we’ve already seen that the crew don’t always do well with complicated plans — they’re better at improvising through simple ones. So why spend an entire episode reestablishing that? This was less table-setting and more table-resetting, and it was messy.

Then there was Delle Seyah Kendry and her parley, aka poor excuse for a stalling tactic / fun giveaway of crucial information to the enemy. I suppose this was meant as the mirror image of Dutch and D’avin’s escapades, but Mayko Nguyen’s nuanced performance actually sold the information failure here. The reveal of the genetic donors isn’t that interesting, and Killjoys smartly doesn’t spend too much time pretending it is. More interesting is Johnny’s dawning realization that Kendry and the child are useful leverage over Aneela. This is definitely a step up for him in terms of political thinking, and, accordingly, Delle Seyah is almost impressed. Johnny might never forgive her, but at least now he’s reckoned with her.

Last up for a reckoning are Dutch and Alvis — except, oh snap, it’s Aneela pretending to be Dutch. Killjoys probably shouldn’t try this too often, as Hannah John-Kamen is no Tatiana Maslany. Still, it is the most obvious route for Aneela, now that she can’t risk firing missiles at Westerley. But why go after Alvis? And how did she know it was Reckoning Night?